1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for controlling progress of a video game by displaying a plurality of player characters on an image display screen of an image display apparatus, and by controlling an action of each of the plurality of player characters displayed on the image display screen in response to operation(s) by a player.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, various kinds of so-called role playing games (RPG; that is, a game in which a player plays a role of a character in a world of the game to accomplish a predetermined object while enjoying a process that the character grows through various experiences) have been provided.
In such a RPG, generally, a player character acting in response to operations by the player wins a battle against an enemy character thwarting accomplishment of a predetermined object in the RPG, by which various benefits such as an experiential value are supplied to the player character.
There are some video games, in which a plurality of player characters execute a battle against an enemy character in cooperation with each other like a tag-team match, among video games such as an RPG. In this case, it is known a video game in which a player specifies battle commands for respective player characters and a battle is then executed after completing command specification for the player characters. It is also known, as a category of so-called action RPG, a video game in which an attack action is instantaneously executed when a player specifies a battle command by pressing any of buttons of a controller or the like, to which battle commands are in advance assigned to specify the attack actions, by which a battle is executed in real time.
For example, a video game and a game apparatus in which a player operates a plurality of player characters to execute a tag-team match so as to cooperate with each other, whereby the video game proceeds has been proposed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-276432 (hereinafter, referred to as “patent document 1”)).
Further, a video game and a game program in which a display gauge relating to life points (hit points) indicating life points of a plurality of player characters is shared with the player characters, a point subtracted from a life point of a player character that suffers an attack is to be added to a life point of a player character that attacks the player character, the current life points of the respective player characters are thereby displayed so as to display the condition thereof, whereby the video game proceeds has also been proposed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-62345 (hereinafter, referred to as “patent document 2”)).
Moreover, a video game and an image processing apparatus in which a plurality of display gauges showing usable conditions of a plurality of weapons and magic that allow a player character to execute one from various attack methods to an enemy character are displayed in an integrated manner, whereby the video game proceeds has also been proposed (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-230179 (hereinafter, referred to as “patent document 3”)).
However, in the game apparatus disclosed in the patent document 1 described above, although the tag-team match can be executed, the number of player characters that the player can operate is merely one. For this reason, there has been a problem that it is hard for one player to operate the plurality of player characters to enjoy the video game. Further, in the game program disclosed in the patent document 2 described above, when the life point of one player character becomes zero, a conventional process that the one player character becomes a battle impossible state, for example, for a predetermined period of time is executed. For this reason, there has been a problem that a player operating the one player character that has become the battle impossible state cannot take part in the video game at least temporarily, and it's hard to say that a device to improve interest of the video game is particularly provided. Moreover, in the image processing apparatus disclosed in the patent document 3, a parameter for attack that the player character can use is merely displayed as the display gauge in the integrated manner. For this reason, there has been a problem that the player cannot grasp the current life point of the player character, whereby there is a fear to lower the interest of some players in the video game.